British farmers received a warning to keep their new tractors under reliable protection - the fact is that agricultural machinery has become almost the new currency in the market of thieves and scammers in the south-west of the country.

The landowners were informed that tractors are especially attractive to criminals. Their villains try to sell (and, preferably, to the foreign market) as soon as possible after the abduction.

To date, the Devon County Farmers have been hit hardest by criminal attacks. In 2017, the abductors deprived them of tractors, combines, telescopic handlers, ATVs and garden tools with a total value of more than 532 thousand pounds (about 692 thousand dollars). In 2016, the amount of damage was half less.

Chris Roberts, the regional manager for NFU Mutual’s Southwestern branch of the insurance company, noted that robbers in Britain today are a new generation of impudent and determined villains who use a combination of brute force and cutting-edge ingenuity in their crimes. As a result, rural residents suffer, as does the country's agriculture as a whole.

“Theft of agricultural equipment today is a huge niche in the shadow business of organized criminal gangs,” Roberts emphasizes. - The villains steal expensive cars and devices, after which they either disassemble them for spare parts or resell them untouched to various parts of the globe.

As part of the fight against such abductors, the British police station their offices in villages where robberies are most likely to occur and advise farmers on protecting their property from robbery attacks.